Xinhua Insight: Guarding against smog becomes daily routine in N China

A Chinese idiom wishes for "calm breeze and smooth seas," but millions of Beijingers are hoping for a strong gust to disperse the smog.

Like many living in Beijing, 28-year-old Song Yu has developed a habit of checking her smartphone air quality app first thing every morning.

"The reading helps me decide whether I should open the window or wear a mask to go to work," said Song, who works for an accounting firm in Beijing.

The weather was seldom a topic of discussion among her coworkers several years ago. "Now, it has become routine for colleagues to discuss when the smog will disperse and how soon it will stage a comeback," Song said, adding that she and her coworkers are worried about more red alerts for air quality, since the city's weather observatory has issued two in December alone.

The Beijing municipal government introduced a four-tier color-coded air pollution warning system in October 2013, the same year smog became a topic of everyday conversation for ordinary Chinese.

Under the warning system, red represents the most severe air pollution, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

During a red alert, only half the city's cars are allowed on roads, while enterprises and public institutions adopt flexible working hours and large outdoor activities and construction work are suspended.

Once a red alert is issued, kindergartens, middle and primary schools may also cancel classes. Key polluting industries should cut production as operations to clear the air are conducted in the city's downtown areas.

In Tianjin, which neighbors Beijing, weather forecasters have warned of six and a half days of smog this week.

SMOG GENERATION?

As a result, wearing a mask is no longer strange.

"We have no choice," said Song. "It's really funny to see colleagues greet each other in the lobby of the office building mask to mask," she said.

Frequent air pollution has made anti-smog masks a trendy gift among Chinese during the holiday season. On Chinese e-commerce marketplace Taobao, masks were one of the top searches just three days ahead of Christmas, together with flowers and scarves.

While many people just hope the masks will protect them from the toxic micro particles that often engulf north China, Lisa Wu has more to worry about: her son.

Wu and parents of her son's classmates raised over 10,000 yuan (1,500 U.S. dollars) to buy a high-end air purifier for their kids at a Beijing primary school earlier this month.

"Too many kids fall ill during the smog and we are left with no other choice," she said.

Health concerns pushed up searches for masks and air purifiers on Alibaba last month by 148.4 percent and 56.5 percent, respectively. Many online sellers even ran out of stock as demand spiked.

A Taobao shop owner told Xinhua that his shop has sold all imported air purifiers in stock. Some shops are even profiteering, hiking prices as people rush to buy.

Zhang Qiang, mother of a seven-year-old boy, was angry when talking about the smog, which has stopped her son from attending school more than three times this month.

She complained on her Sina Weibo microblog account: "Why are so many polluting businesses allowed to run at the cost of Chinese children breathing dirty air?"

Anxious Chinese have even turned to cans of fresh air from Canada, which many in north China's smog hot spots have purchased on Taobao.

FIGHT AGAINST POLLUTION

While infuriating the public, the heavy air pollution puts huge pressure on environmental authorities as well.

According to a report published by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, heavy and chemical industries were the main cause of recent smog across north China.

Optimizing the energy structure has become one of the government's top priorities.

China plans to restructure its energy mix by developing renewable energy sources in a bid to combat air pollution, Xie Zhenhua, China's special representative on climate change, said at a press conference in Beijing.

Xie also stressed that China has been actively developing non-fossil energy over the past decade, with installed capacity of hydropower, wind power and solar power increasing 257 percent, 9,000 percent and nearly 40,000 percent, respectively.

China's State Council pledged earlier this month that China will upgrade coal-fired power plants to cut pollutant discharge by 60 percent before 2020, saving around 100 million tonnes of raw coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 180 million tonnes annually.

Experts in the area have also proposed alternative fuels to ease air pollution.

Alternative fuels based on methanol and ethanol would be the next choice to help reduce air pollutant emissions in north China, said Guo Xinyu, vice chairman with the China Alcohol and Ether Fuel Committee.

In November, Beijing's environment authority reported that the capital city's PM2.5 density, an indicator of air pollution, had dropped over 20 percent during the first 10 months of the year from the same period last year.

When told the news, Zhang Qiang looked out the window, stared at the smog-enveloped city and said, "There's much more to do." Endi